Vegetable Soup

History

"Vegetable Soup" in Martha McCulloch-Williams's "Dishes & Beverages of the Old South" (1913) is built on meat before it is built on vegetables. Two fat chickens three parts grown are cut into joints, salted and peppered and laid aside while half a pound of streaky bacon fries in a deep pot. The bacon comes out crisp, the chicken goes in and is turned to brown all over, then a thick slice of ham browns a little, then four sliced mild onions — and only then two gallons of cold water, half a teaspoonful of salt, two pods of red pepper, a dozen whole peppercorns and sprigs of herbs.

The historical record does not document a specific earlier origin for this soup. What can be said is what the book itself concedes: its dedication grants that the cooking it records came from Black women it does not name, and it describes elsewhere the plantation kitchens and the specialists whose work it draws on. That is the honest attribution — not an atmosphere of traditions merging, but a book resting on labour it declines to credit by name.

McCulloch-Williams was a white writer born near Clarksville, Tennessee, who grew up on a plantation before the Civil War, and her book's affection for that world goes unexamined in it: its opening holds that being "the best fed people in the world" let "we of the South Country... put up the best fight in history."

Ingredients

• 2 whole fat chickens
• 1/2 pound streaky bacon
• 1 thick slice ham
• 4 whole onions
• 2 gallons cold water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 whole red pepper pods
• 12 whole peppercorns
• 2 sprigs parsley
• 2 small heads tender cabbage
• 6 whole white potatoes
• 1 quart string beans
• 1 pint shelled lima beans
• 1 stalk celery
• 12 whole tomatoes
• 1 pint okra
• 12 ears green corn
• 1 large spoonful butter

Instructions

1. Cut into joints two fat chickens three parts grown, salt and pepper them, and lay aside.
2. Meanwhile fry in a deep pot half a pound streaky bacon. Take out when crisp.
3. Put in the chicken, turning it so as to brown it all over.
4. Put in a thick slice of ham, let it also brown a bit, and do the same with four sliced onions — mild ones.
5. Then add two gallons cold water, half a teaspoonful salt, two pods red pepper, a dozen whole pepper corns, and two sprigs of parsley.
6. Keep at a gentle boil for an hour.
7. Then put in two small heads of tender cabbage finely shredded, and six white potatoes, peeled and sliced a quarter-inch thick.
8. Fifteen minutes later put in a quart of string beans broken short, a pint of shelled lima beans, a stalk of celery cut fine lengthwise, and a dozen tomatoes, peeled and sliced.
9. Follow them in ten minutes with a pint of tender okra sliced.
10. Next add a little later the pulp from a dozen ears of green corn, slit lengthwise and scraped.
11. Stir almost constantly with a long-handled skimmer after the corn pulp is in. If the skimmer brings up chicken bones, throw them aside.
12. Just before serving put in a large spoonful of butter, rolled in flour.
13. Taste, add salt if required.
14. Serve very hot with corn hoe cake and cider just beginning to sparkle.